Reviewer: Federica Roberti
Set in the 1980, during his five year hiatus from creating extraordinary music, “Miles Ahead” narrates the life and career of Miles Davis. In a whirlwind of scenes that glide from his tumultuous present to the glamour past, the camera follows the trumpeter through the most difficult time of his carrier.
The film starts with Miles being interviewed for his great comeback after a five year hiatus. After being asked some questions about this time in his life, he decides to tell the story in his own unique way. From this point on, the story shifts to the previous five years of silence and the ghost of a successful past that his hunting the jazz musician, making it difficult for him to create good music.
After challenging himself, directing two episodes of his TV series “House of Cards”, Don Cheadle embarked in this new and demanding project not only as the protagonist of Davis’s drama and biography, but also as the director of the movie.
Directing wise the movie has some imprecisions. Throughout the film, the camera shifts from the present to the memories of Miles Davis’ glorious past to remind the audience of who he was. However, Don Cheadle’s work is not as sharp as it could be. In fact, while th
e cuts from one scene to the others can be quite clever and shock the audience to focus on the story, they also add some confusion, along with an almost ever present shakiness of the camera. The result is a film that becomes chaotic while still showing a great potential in the editing.
Each actor delivered a great performance and the cast ensemble worked together effortlessly to bring the story on the screen. Ewan McGregor was a good supporting actor and his character, a journalist that only wants to tell the story of Davis’ great comeback, becomes the motive for most of Miles’ misfortunes throughout the movie, as well as the only person that will allow the famous trumpeter to tell his own story.
Don Cheadle portrayed Miles Davis beautifully. He was able to empathise with him both during his glorious and more prolific years and through the worst of his career when he was an addict trying to chase the ghost of his own greatness.
While the movie falls into the drama category, there are some scenes that still hold some comic relief. These comic pockets help the audience go through the heaviest part of the movie, especially the ones portraying Davis and his wife Frances’ struggles after he became successful.
Being a musician’s biography, the music is an essential part of the story. Unfortunately, in “Miles Ahead” the soundtrack is not as powerful as expected and it only accompanies the events. However, it is still useful in giving a quick tempo to the movie’s rhythm by using the well known jazz notes.
All in all, while “Miles Ahead” is an entertaining movie, it fell short in making the audience connect with the story. The main reason behind this fail connection is especially the inconsistency in the directing which waves between imprecisions and clever stratagem to move from one scene to the other, making the movie, at times, not always easy to follow.
